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Pebble smartwatches could be kept alive by unofficial Rebble group

The group of users and developers wants to recreate the operating system after it’s switched off at the end of the month.
The group of users and developers wants to recreate the operating system after it’s switched off at the end of the month. The group of users and developers wants to recreate the operating system after it’s switched off at the end of the month.

An unofficial platform which wants to keep Pebble smartwatches and their functionality alive after the official sources are shut down has received backing from the company’s founder.

Pebble’s online services are due to be switched off at the end of June following the acquisition of the company by Fitbit at the end of 2016.

Since then, unofficial developer site Rebble has popped up, promoting a replacement system that aims to try and keep the internet-connected functions of the smartwatch alive.

The pebble srcset=
The pebble srcset= (Pebble/Fitbit)

It is asking users and developers to register with the site, and hopes to recreate existing functions that would otherwise be lost.

Now the scheme has gained the backing of Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, who retweeted a post from Pebble employee Katharine Berry, who is leading the Rebble charge.

The idea of the platform is that if users and developers sign up it will be able to replace key pieces of the Pebble ecosystem and maintain the functionality of the smartwatches even after the official Pebble services are gone.

Rebble said it plans to offer basic service for free, but will look to charge a monthly fee for access to services such as Weather and Dictation as a way of funding the project, which is likely to incur costs for servers as well as software development.

According to the most recent update on the Rebble site, for now there is no app to install and the system is not yet ready to be launched.

The group also says it is unlikely to have every service successfully replaced by the time of the shutdown, but is working to bring as much online as possible.